Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter is one of the star guests of the 2024 Lanaudière Festival. Even if her program Sweet France largely drawn from the popular repertoire of French song, we took the opportunity to discuss with this major performer musical subjects addressed during more than three intense decades of a flamboyant career.
Anne Sofie von Otter is “the” mezzo of a quarter of a century that we will extend roughly from 1987 to 2012. We therefore find two decades, the 1990s and 2000s, where she was essential in many roles. We could not then, especially in the 1990s, imagine another Octavian in The Knight of the Rosea role immortalized on CD with Bernard Haitink in 1990 and on DVD, in Vienna, in the second version by Carlos Kleiber in 1994. Von Otter was just as essential as Sesto in The Clemency of Titusand it was John Eliot Gardiner who was able to capture her in this role, what’s more opposite Julia Varady’s Vitellia, in other words an anthology recording.
Question of style
There are obviously countless topics that could be discussed with such a living singing legend, but as she recorded THE Messiah Handel’s performances with both Neville Marriner in 1992 and Trevor Pinnock in 1988, and as John Eliot Gardiner, Georg Solti and James Levine rub shoulders in his Mozart discography, a rarely discussed question arises: does one sing differently with an ensemble of period instruments and with a baroque conductor? Should one adapt one’s technique or one’s manner of singing?
“It depends on the conductor, it’s not necessarily about the original instruments. It’s more about the energy, the way the conductor phrases,” says Anne Sofie von Otter. “A conductor who only conducts orchestras on modern instruments may have the same energy, or the same thinking, as, say, Trevor Pinnock. If you have a ‘romantic’ conductor, you immediately get into slower tempos, thicker textures, maybe more strings or more vibrato. It may require you to sing louder, but the main thing is the phrasing, the ‘way of turning corners’, if I may say so.”
In particular, the singer remembers Neville Marriner as a “conductor who was moving forward; not so far from baroque thinking.” “There were differences with someone like Solti. Marriner was also concerned with refreshing the way of conducting Bach.” As for vocal technique, Anne Sofie von Otter makes no distinctions: “I have always tried to use very little vibrato when I sing Bach or Mozart, and this, regardless of the conductor.”
In her Mozartian lyrical discography, the singer therefore leaves us The Clemency of Titus And Idomeneus with Gardiner, So much for everyone with Solti and The wedding with Levine. But this stylistic heterogeneity does not bother her. “All these recordings have been “the fun” to do, and the conductors were all very nice. I am not a purist. Some prefer modern instruments and vibrato. I prefer old instruments. But I would never say that someone is wrong in this matter if, for example, they wanted to listen to the Goldberg Variations on a Steinway. People have different tastes and that’s fine.”
Question of trust
In the case of a partition like the summer nights by Berlioz, recorded on the one hand with the Berlin Philharmonic and James Levine and then, in 2011, with Marc Minkowski and the Musiciens du Louvre, how does the singer see her evolution? “The recording with Levine was early. We had few rehearsals and I think I had sung the summer nights once before. When I re-recorded them with the Musiciens du Louvre, I had sung them many times, I was aware of the colours of the orchestra, especially since the Musiciens du Louvre were using period instruments. It is essentially the orchestra that changes the sonic perspective and me, who is older, but I don’t think I conceptualized the work differently, basically. I have a very strong instinct for music, for the way I want to shape music. That hasn’t changed since I was 25.”
Obviously, we were curious to know if all the conductors had followed this “great instinct”, trusting the singer, or if some had wanted to interfere. “The conductors I worked with always trusted my instinct. For example, Georg Solti, who was happy to let me do what I wanted. He was inspired by working with young singers who had a different approach than the singers he had worked with in the 1950s or 1960s. The only conductor who really wanted to change what I was doing was Carlo Maria Giulini in the Mass in B minor of Bach. He was not happy, for example, with my way of singing the Laudamus Te. I don’t think he liked me very much and I wasn’t happy that he changed everything.”
Early in her career, Anne Sofie von Otter sang Gluck extensively, recording with John Eliot Gardiner in 1989 and 1990 the reference versions ofOrpheus and EurydiceofAlceste and D’Iphigenia in Aulis. However, Gluck still struggles to win support. “When I think of Gluck, I think of Orpheus and Eurydice : it’s not long, it’s full of beautiful music, it’s popular and it’s a clear love story that the audience can relate to. For Alceste and the two operas on Iphigenia, the stories are more or less exciting and I could not even tell you them in detail, except that they are about gods and sacrifices.” The singer attributes to these “less digestible stories and magnificent music, but a notch below”, the fact that Gluck is not more popular. Moreover, she notes that the composer’s output, apart from a few ballets (admirable Don Juan), is not huge.
A matter of time
Anne Sofie von Otter has recorded a programme of orchestrated lieder by Schubert with Claudio Abbado. But she is not really surprised that they do not establish themselves in the repertoire of symphony orchestras. “The orchestrations are by various composers and most of these orchestrators were quite heavy-handed. The conductor must therefore lighten up, remove percussion for example.” She concludes: “So it is interesting rather than essential, whereas we have melodies with orchestra by Mahler or Berlioz, just as we have Scheherazade of Ravel, models of the genius of these composers.
The singer also notes “the scarcity of vocal performances in symphonic seasons”. “Programmers favour piano and violin concertos. They say that the public prefers that.” In any case, there is no question of the singer moving to the other side of the stage, like Cecilia Bartoli. “I don’t want to direct a cultural institution, I don’t want to make programmes or run an opera house. The responsibility is enormous and it’s very hard. You have to have lots of ideas, an iron will, and you have to confront people; it’s awful. If I weren’t a singer, maybe I would want to conduct, because I like to shape music. But being a conductor is no picnic either. I think what I like most is doing what I do.”
Anne Sofie von Otter’s main regret is “not having sung more Handel on stage” at a time when her voice was “super flexible.” “My first Handel is Ruggiero in Alcina at Drottningholm in July 2003. At the beginning of my operatic period I sang Mozart and Strauss. Of course I recorded Ariodante with Marc Minkowski in January 1997, but 10 years after that, it was a bit late. Instead, I sang Mozart, so I can’t complain too much…”
On the contrary, the Swedish singer does not think she burned herself in a role too early. “I sang Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde of Wagner and Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle Bartók, two big roles for my voice. But I did it on occasion and for a few conductors who really wanted me in these roles [Bartók pour Bernard Haitink en 1996, Wagner pour Esa-Pekka Salonen en 2007]. It came more or less at the right time.”
In Lanaudière, after having sung Swedish folklore, Benny Andersson and Simon and Garfunkel at the CRAPO on Thursday, July 25, Anne Sophie von Otter will be at the Amphitheatre on Saturday, July 27, at 4 p.m. for Sweet Francea project developed a few years ago for a Naïve CD, notably around songs by Charles Trenet, Michel Legrand, Barbara and Léo Ferré.